photo #5586903

Jorrit Eskes had recently relocated with his partner Laura to Sydney, Australia from Amsterdam, Netherlands when he spotted the dying remnants of a Cumulonimbus capillatus storm cloud while commuting by ferry across Sydney Harbour. All the classic elements of the storm are there – the shaggy edges of the spread-out canopy at its top indicating that it had reached the mature capillatus stage, named from the Latin for ‘having hair’, as well as the central column of the cloud, and the pouches known as mamma that often hang from the underside of the canopy of larger storms. All the features are present except, that is, the actual storm itself. By this stage, precipitation was no longer falling from its base. The central column had lost its structure, showing that it was no longer fed by the powerful thermal updrafts that had built it up an hour or so before. Jorrit sent the dissipating storm to Laura’s dad, Glenn Johnson (Cloud Appreciation Society Member 55,100), who he was sure would be impressed by it. Glenn was – and he knew right away who this atmospheric monument to the convective power of the Australian summer should be passed on to.